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(HABS; Photograph by Tim Buchman)
Early history, commerce, and architecture make this house and adjacent buildings a major site. The facade of the house is typical of the region's mid-nineteenth-century Greek Revival houses with a wide two-story pedimented portico, here with later Victorian trim on the portico's upper level and on the pediment. Probably incorporated in this house is the late-eighteenth-century residence of Scots merchant and prominent Tory John Hook, who, to his regret, crossed swords with Patrick Henry in the famous “Beef, Beef, Beef” court case. When Hook legitimately, but foolishly sued to recover the cost of two work oxen confiscated for food during the Revolution, he was awarded two pennies for his loss. Moved from across the road and now behind the main house, Hook's small Georgian store is the region's only known surviving eighteenth-century commercial establishment of the once-dominant Scottish mercantile class. The frame structure has beaded siding and, on what is now its rear, a modillion cornice. Next to it is a rebuilt one-room structure that may also date from the late eighteenth century. For a time the two small buildings were used as servants' quarters.